Police Severely Penalize Illegal Fuel Transport in Jerry Cans at Stations

At Polish fuel stations, police are intensifying checks and issuing fines to drivers attempting to illegally transport fuel in portable jerry cans. This practice, referred to as fueling 'in reserve', stems from consumer fears of further fuel price increases against the backdrop of volatile raw material market conditions. Violating regulations concerning the transport of dangerous materials carries a fine of up to 3,000 zloty. The legal basis are regulations implementing the international ADR Agreement into the Polish legal order. According to it, without additional permits, the transport of up to 25 liters of gasoline or 50 liters of diesel outside the vehicle's standard tank is permitted. Regulations concerning the safe transport of dangerous materials date back to the mid-20th century. After a series of serious road and railway accidents, the international community under the auspices of the United Nations developed the ADR Agreement in 1957. Its goal was to establish uniform, rigorous standards to minimize the risk of disasters. Poland, as a transit country, ratified this agreement in 1975, incorporating its principles into the national legal system, primarily through the Road Traffic Law and executive regulations issued by the minister responsible for transport. The transported fuel must be in jerry cans specifically designed for this purpose, firmly closed. During checks, police verify not only the quantity but also the method of securing the containers. The jerry cans must be immobilized to prevent movement during driving, which is crucial for safety in the event of sudden braking or collision. The transport of fuel in the trunk of a passenger car is treated particularly strictly if it is not separated from the passenger compartment by a solid, impermeable partition. Furthermore, officers pay attention to the moment of filling the jerry can – it is prohibited to do this with the vehicle's engine running, which minimizes the risk of ignition of fuel vapors. In case of doubt, the driver is obliged to prove that the transported substance is indeed fuel and not another, potentially more dangerous material. 25 l / 50 l — permissible limit without a permit The increased police activity at stations is a combination of preventive actions and responses to specific reports, often from station staff or other drivers. Rising fuel prices, driven by geopolitical uncertainty and oil market fluctuations, prompt some drivers to take legal risks in hopes of savings. However, this is not an isolated problem. Concurrently, Polish police are conducting extensive operations against other forms of crime. In the Opole region, officers from Nysa secured 4 kilograms of drugs, marking another success for the local criminal division. In another case, within the same voivodeship, police discovered a veritable warehouse of narcotics in an apartment, where drugs were stored, among other places, in plastic buckets. These actions, although thematically unrelated to station checks, illustrate the daily, multifaceted work of Polish services, which combine traffic law enforcement with combating serious crime. All these actions, from issuing fines for improper transport of several dozen liters of fuel to dismantling drug warehouses, serve the same overarching goal – protecting public safety and order.